Living in the age of Imposed amnesia:: The eclipse of democratic formative culture

Abstract

This article argues that under neoliberal casino capitalism there has been a wholesale attack not only on the social state but also on those public spheres that enable the formative cultures necessary to produce critical agents, engaged subjects, and the literacies necessary to make power and authority accountable. In this instance, the struggle to develop counter-narratives to challenge the normalization of neoliberal ideology and values must be accompanied by the development of public spheres that enable such narratives to develop. This suggests that the struggle against the moral coma induced by neoliberalism is as much a pedagogical struggle as it is a struggle over power, politics, and sovereignty.